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Junta announces conditions for poll campaigning over state-run media

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(Mizzima/IFEX) - The Burmese government's Union Election Commission (UEC) issued a notice on 14 September 2010 granting "legal" parties the right to campaign on state-run radio and television, with 15 minutes allotted for each campaign speech by their chairmen or secretaries until 25 October 2010. The parties, however, were told they needed to submit a draft copy of their speeches to the authorities for permission. The maximum limit of the draft speech is seven pages of A4 paper, the notice says.

However, many other restrictions were included in the notice with vaguely-worded offenses such as "committing disaffection to the state and government", of the kind that have frequently been used to frame opposition members and led to their imprisonment. Besides these restrictions, the draft copy of their speeches must be approved by the state censor board.

The restrictions on campaign speeches on state-run media:

1. Must not give any talks that can harm non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty.
2. Must not give any talks that can harm security, the rule of law and community peace.
3. Must not disobey the Constitution (2008) of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) and existing laws.
4. Must not stimulate sedition or give any talks that can tarnish the image of the state.
5. Must not give any talks that can lead to the collapse of the Tatmadaw (armed forces) or tarnish the image of the Tatmadaw.
6. Must not give any talks or undertake organising measures that can lead to conflicts or harm dignity or moral conduct in connection with racism or religion or affairs of an individual or community.
7. Must not abuse religion for political ends.
8. Must not give any talks that can harm peaceful pursuit of education.
9. Must not give any talks that can discourage service personnel from performing their duties or to abet them to stage protests against the government.

The government dissolved 10 political parties including the main opposition National League for Democracy and allowed the remaining 37 parties the right to campaign on state-run radio and television.

Restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and assembly persist, amid the government's failure to contend with the range of rights-abusing laws that have been long used to criminalize free speech and prosecute dissidents.As part of the military's "clearance operations" in northern Rakhine State, where thousands of Rohingya Muslims face rampant and systemic human rights violations, the authorities denied independent journalists access to the region since early October.

An officer of the Myanmar army recently filed a criminal complaint against two journalists for allegedly sowing disunity among the military. Even though mediation by the Press Council caused the military to withdraw the case, this incident demonstrates how the military continues to throw its weight to get back at what it perceives as negative publicity.

The Broadcasting Law, approved in August, enabled private companies to enter the broadcast market for the first time. However, it maintains presidential control over the broadcasting sector, and the Broadcasting Council it established is susceptible to political interference.

The report surveys the rocky landscape for media and public discourse since the ruling military junta lifted the curtain on the southeast Asian nation in 2012 after five decades of isolation from the modern world.

As the election looms for later this year, incidents in 2014 and in early 2015 involving the press raises serious questions on the genuineness of media freedom in Burma. The situation is alarming as the state seems to have heaped all the faults and fines on the media in the past year, which has seen a media worker being killed in October on the pretext of national security. International assistance has poured into the country to develop the media aimed at lifting and sustaining the state of media freedom. However, a viable press freedom environment seems unlikely to materialise in Burma before the end of this administration.

There is some skepticism about how much influence Burma's youth movement can assert in terms of political change. Still, activists have benefited from greater access to the Internet, which has brought a new side to the online community after decades of heavy censorship

Burma is at a crossroads. The period of transition since 2010 has opened up the space for freedom of expression to an extent unpredicted by even the most optimistic in the country. Yet this space is highly contingent on a number of volatile factors.

The media landscape in Burma is more open than ever, as President Thein Sein releases imprisoned journalists and abolishes the former censorship regime. But many threats and obstacles to truly unfettered reporting remain, including restrictive laws held over from the previous military regime. The wider government’s commitment to a more open reporting environment is in doubt.

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